Sankar Varathappan: The Indian Who Plays Cricket for Kuwait

Sankar Varathappan's whole family works in a spinning mill and if it wasn't for his older brother, this is where he would be working right now. Instead, he has fulfilled his dream of playing cricket for a national team, although not with his native India. Let us take a closer look at his heart-warming story.

His Family Wanted Him to Drop out of School

Coming from a poor family, his parents asked him to drop out of school so that he could work in the spinning mill that the rest of his family work in. This way, the family would at least be able to get a bit more money to try and survive. However, his older brother didn't want his younger brother to drop out, so he managed to convince his parents to let him stay on at school as he was bright enough to do well.

Sankar Made the Most of his Opportunity

Sankar stayed at school, worked hard, and went on to graduate with an engineering degree. He then left Kuwait for pastures new. First, he went to Dubai and then he went to Kuwait. He then got married to the got married to the girl of his dreams, despite her family being against it. He then set about fulfilling his responsibilities as a husband.

Sankar Has Always Had a Cricket Talent

When he was growing up in the town of Pachal, Sankar grew to love cricket. When he was a teenager, he was already playing with the men, such was his talent. He played for some clubs, but he stopped playing to concentrate more on his studies as he did not want to let his brother down. As a child, one of his favourite cricket clubs was the Bombay Cricket Club. You can find out more information about this club on https://www.bombaycricketclub.com/.

In 2014, he got a job engineering job in Kuwait and he soon became emerged in the vibrant cricket culture of this small country. He was playing for the Royal Kings Trivandrum and putting in solid performance after solid performance. In 86 matches, he scored 3,617 runs and helped the club to move up through the divisions. All those on the Kuwait cricket scene now know about him.

He Has Had His Downs as Well Though

In 2016, Sankar wanted to play in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, but his dream did not materialise. However, he did not let his disappointment het the better of him. In fact, he let it spur him on. He became even more focused and he set up some cricket nets where he worked so that he could practice whenever he had some free time.

This didn’t please his wife or his parents though. His wife, who lives in India was not happy with how cricket took up their Skype time. When he told his father that he was concentrating on cricket, he told him to stop wasting his time and to look after his family.

His Dedication Got Him Selected for the Kuwait National Cricket Team

The Kuwait national cricket team were due to take part in the World T20 Asia qualifiers in July 2019 and Sankar was called up to the squad.

The team did pretty well, but they ultimately failed to qualify for the tournament proper. Sankar played three innings in four matches but didn’t really show what he is capable of. He scored 14 runs at an average of 4.7.

However, if he continues to put in the effort and train, there is a very good chance that he will pull on the Kuwait cricket jersey once more.

The fact that he has done so four times is something that he should be really proud of as not everyone has the chance to play international cricket. He owes his brother a lot and wants to repay him one day, in whatever way he can.